Leica revives Thambar-M 90mm f/2.2 lens

Leica has announced it is re-launching its classic Thambar-M 90mm f/2.2 portrait lens for the digital age.

Promising a signature aesthetic that ‘cannot be reproduced in digital post processing’, the Leica Thambar-M 90mm f/2.2 is all about bokeh and shallow depth of field which it produces via intentional under-correction from its spherical lens elements.

This under-correction increases towards the edges of the frame, allowing both the degree of softening and the depth of field to be controlled by the smoothly-turning ‘stepless’ aperture ring. The effect is most pronounced at wider apertures.

The original Leica Thambar was produced in 1935 and follows a recent trend of classic film lenses getting a new lease on life in the digital age.

Leica says it has almost ‘completely preserved’ the design of its original lens in the new Leica Thambar-M 90 mm f/2.2 in terms of its proportions and aperture engravings, while slight modifications give a nod to Leica’s modern M-Lenses.

Leica says that the biggest difference between the new Thambar-M 90mm f/2.2 and the original is the new lens’s single-coating to protect the glass against environmental influences and surface corrosion.